Friday November 15, 2012-Inks Lake State Park

Going back to Tuesday, I got a Grasshopper and finished up mowing the large camping area near the back of the park. Most of the mowing was detail work around trees and the large rocks, so it was very time consuming and very dusty. I think this was the dirtiest that I have gotten when mowing. I came home and sat outside for awhile to cool down and dust myself off and then took a much-needed shower. The park host group had decided to go to the Highlander restaurant in Burnet. The Highlander is a buffet style restaurant with a different selection every day. We had a very good time visiting with our co-workers and sat inside chatting for a couple of hours.

Wednesday we worked on filling up the firewood "stands" around the park, then began picking up the recycling bins and emptying them of the aluminum cans. We worked on that for about 3 1/2 hours before running very low on fuel for the Gator that we were using. We returned to the shop but the pickup truck with the diesel refueling tank on it was gone, so we were unable to finish our job. There is no diesel tank at the shop except for the truck, and I'm not sure why this is being done. I guess its a way to allow volunteer workers refuel the equipment without supervision or someone having to unlock the tank.

Thursday was a down day for us. I took my morning walk, which includes picking up litter and checking the firewood stacks along the way, but today we were looking forward to seeing our friends, Michael and Kelly who were coming by this afternoon. They arrived right on time, about 1 o'clock, and we sat outside in our yard for a couple of hours until the chilly temperatures sent us inside, where we continued our visit with them. They are fellow Heartland Landmark owners, although they have a different model (floor-plan) than we do. We had a very nice time chatting with them and decided to go eat at the Highlander restaurant. This was a good choice and was right on their way back to Fort Hood, where Michael had been stationed many years ago. He just retired a few months ago from the U.S. Army and we thank him for his service to the country. We are looking forward to seeing them again soon when we go to Mission.

Bringing us up to today, Friday. I did my morning walk and found that there was not as much firewood gone as I had expected but there were no Gators available, so we had to wait to reload the firewood. We were supposed to work at the store on boat rental duty at noon, so I decided to let Stella go to the store while I did firewood. Surely she could handle an hour or so by herself!

I loaded up the Gator and headed out to deliver the wood, and found that the tent end of the park was completely out! I started laying out the stacks and a group of guys walked up and gave me $20 for some wood so I let them take it right out of the truck. I didn't have to handle it and made a sale, so it's all good! I got the wood delivered and walked back to the store to help with the boats, but rentals were very slow today. Stella had rented one kayak and only one canoe and they both came back in soon after I got there. I put their oars and life jackets away and that was about all we did for the rest of the afternoon.... Booooring!

Everything that was out was in by 3, which is the last rental time for the afternoon, so I locked everything up and we left. We drove through the park and found that not as much firewood as I expected had been sold, but we'll have to get out pretty early tomorrow morning to check it again. I just hope there will be a Gator for us to use.

So long.